Lasting boots and shoes



(No Model.)

W. G. GROSS. LASTING BOOTS AND SHOES.

No. 406,338. Patented July 2, 1889.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1* I (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. W. O. CROSS.

- LASI'ING BOOTS AND SHOES. No. 406,338. Patented July 2, 1889..

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' UNITED STATES PATENT I OFFICE.

WILLIAM C. CROSS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LASTING BOOTS AND SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 406,338, dated July 2, 1889. Application filed April 20,1889. Serial No. 307,962. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM O. CROSS, of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

The object I have in view is to obtain a boot or shoe which is flexible at the ball, and in which there will be less liability to wear and break the stitches in this portion of the shoe. I am aware that others before me have had the same object in view, and that to the attainment of this object various plans of manufacturing the shoe have been heretofore devised, most of these plans contemplating, as is also contemplated in my plan, the stitching of the outer sole to the upper only (and not to the inner sole also) throughout what may be called the ball portion of the shoe, or, in other words, that portion of the shoe which receives the ball of the foot.

My improved method of making shoes involves the use of an inner sole having its ball portion bounded at opposite edges by transverse slits, which extend through the thickness of the sole, so that. the ball portion of the inner sole may have edges which can be turned up or over as flaps. This I am aware is not new per so, and I make no claim to it. Heretofore, however, these flaps have been turned in and down upon the body of the inner sole preparatory to being placed on the last, so that they would lie between the body of the inner sole and the bottom of the last, or between the body of the inner sole and a pronged plate previously. placed upon the body of the last, as in Letters Patent No. 284,066. Under my invention, however, the slitted inner sole is placed flat upon the last without displacement or inturning of its fi aps, just as though it was not slitted and had no flaps, and it is only after the upper is lasted to it and the outer sole is to be sewed to the shoe after its removal from the last that the flaps are to be raised so as to permit the stitches which attach the outer sole to the upper to pass through the upper and outer sole only without passing through the inner sole.- After this has been done the flaps are pressed back into place, thus completing the original and full outline of the inner so1e in which my invention differs, for example,

from that described in Letters Patent No.:

255,133, in which the inner sole is cut away on the edges along the ball portion-and rendering unnecessary a sock-sole or the like, which in the patented plan lastreferred to is requisite in practice, in order to cover up.

the ridges left by cutting away the inner sole. 7 a

The nature of my improvement can best be explained and understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view of the inner sole. Fig. 2 is a view of the upper lasted to the inner sole. Figs. 3

and 4 are modifications illustrative of diiferent ways of lasting the upper to the ball-portion of the inner sole. Fig. 5 is a plan View, and Fig. 6 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the shoe as it appears after the outer sole has been laid, and after it has been re- -moved from the last and the outer sole has been stitched to the shoe. In these figures portions of the upper are broken away to expose the ball portion of the shoe.

In practicing my invention I proceed as follows: The inner sole A is first slitted through on opposite edges, these slits a bounding the ball portion of the inner sole, or that portion which it is desired shall not be. sewed by the stitches which unite the OIIlJGIKSQIE to the upper, the portions of the edges of the inner sole included between these slits constitut-- ing flaps a, which may be turned up or back along the dotted lines so. To facilitate this operation the inner sole may be scored or indented along these lines, if desired. The inner sole thus prepared is laid fiat upon the bottom of the last in the usual way, and the upper B is then lasted to it in any customary or suitable manner, except as to the ballportion of the inner sole, or rather the side flaps a of this portion of the sole, which are included between the slits a.

The preferred way of lasting the upper is illustrated in Fig. 2. In this illustration the toe and the shank are lasted by means of lasting-tacks, I) being the line of the toe-lasting tacks, and 0 being the shank-lasting tacks.

the drawings, or by whipping across from side to side of the shoe, or in any other suitable known way.

It is for the purposes of the present case necessary to direct attention to the fact that the portion of the upper which overlaps the parts of the inner sole included between the slits a is so lasted thereto that the flaps formed by these slits oan,when the shoe is taken from the last, be upturned or lifted away from the upper to permit the attachment of the outer sole to the upper only.

I may, if desired, take the shoe from the last and sew the upper through and through to the ball portion of the inner sole, as indicated in Fig. 3, e 6 being the lines of stitches referred to. These lines, however, are back of the dotted lines 00, on which the flaps of the inner sole are raised or turned, so as not to at all interfere with the last-named operation. These stitches embed themselves in the inside face of the inner sole, so that they will not be felt by the foot, and they may at times be useful in order to insure the permanent attachment and holding 'of the upper to the inn er sole. The shoe after having been stitched at e is again placed upon the last, in order that the outer sole may be laid.

In lieu of the draw-cord shown in Fig. 3, I may, as preliminary to sewing the line of stitches 6, last the ball. portion of the upper to the inner solo by lasting-tacks. (Shown by dotted lines 3 in Fig. 2.) These tacks, however, are merely temporary make-shifts, and are to be withdrawn and removed before the outer sole is laid on; or, in lieu of the special draw-cord arrangement shown in the figures thus far referred to, I may last the upper to the ball portion of the inner sole, as shown in Fig. 4viz., by forming on the inner sole (back of the lines as, on which the flaps are to turn) lines of loops f, and then drawing over the upper into place by sewing through and through the upper and these loops, as indicated by the lines of stitches 9. Various other ways of lasting this portion of the upper will suggest themselves to the skilled mechanic, what is essential being that there shall be no connection between the upper and the inner sole throughout the ball portion of the latter which will come outside of the lines xtl1at is to say, between those lines and the adjoining edges of the inner sole. Having brought the shoe to this condition, the next operation is to lay the outer sole (J. After this operation has been performed the shoe is removed from the last for the purpose of sewing the outer sole to the shoe, the sewing being performed bya McKay machine or other machine suitable for the purpose. Prior, however, to this sewing operation, and after the shoe is removed from the last, the flaps a, by a suitable instrument, are for the first time lifted and turned back from those portions of the upper which they up to this time have covered. The sole is then sewed to the shoe, the horn of the machine passing between the upturned flaps a and the upper, and the line of stitching It thus formed being through the upper and the outer sole only, as to the ball portion of the inner sole, as indicated in Figs. 5 and (5, in which the flaps are represented as still turned back from the upper. After this operation the flaps a are pressed and beaten back into place, and the shoe can be otherwise finished in any suitable way.

hat I claim herein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The described improvement in the manufacture of boots and shoes, consisting in, slitting the inner solo at the points a to form side flaps 0. along the ball portion, placing the sole thus prepared flat upon the last, lasting the upper to the inner sole, as described, so that the flaps (4, although unturned and extended upon the last and overlapped by the upper, shall not be attached thereto, then laying the outer sole, next removing the shoe from the last and sewing the outer sole to the shoe, first lifting and turning back the flaps a from the upper, so that the stitches at these points shall pass through the upper and outer sole only, and then turning down the flaps again into place, all substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

2. In the manufacture of boots and shoes, the method of securing the shank and forward portion of the upper to the slitted inner sole, which consists in attaching the shank and toe portions of the upper to the inner sole by lasting-tacks and lasting the intermediate portion of the upper to the portion of the inner sole included between the slits by cords or strings, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

In the manufacture of boots and shoes, the method of holding the upper to the ball portion of the slitted inner sole, consisting in permanently securing the upper to the said portion of the inner sole along lines back of the flaps of the inner sole and back of the lines upon which the outer sole is afterward sewed to the upper, and then laying the outer sole and sewing it throughout the ball portion of the shoe to the upper only, the flaps of the slotted inner sole being turned back during this operation, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of April, 188.).

\VILLIAM O. CROSS.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN HERBERT, JosIAH 1L QUINCY. 

